Which program should I join?
 

Hi all,
I'm new to this traveling around thing and looking to get the most out of it. I foolishly didn't sign up for any frequent flyer program before my last holiday to thailand, but this time I'm going to get something out of it!

I'm heading off to England in about 6 weeks flying Singapore Airlines with a 3 night stop over is Singapore.

Once I get to England the plan is to live and work there for 1-2 years and do a trip to europe or where ever 1-2 times every couple of months.

I'd love to hear which program people think would be the best for me to be a part of.

I'd also like any info you can give me on things like linking credit cards. I pretty much live off my credit card so something that gives me miles for that would be handy.

Any other tips will be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Pete

I would advice you to join the FF membership with British Midland(bmi).Its called Diamond Club and as bmi is a Star alliance member,the miles could be redeemed with all the Star alliance member airlines.

I don't know a lot about the European airlines, but I would recommend joining every FF program you might eventually fly, the same for hotels.

While I can influence my travel arrangements, I occasionally have to fly where my primary airlines can't get me or where my prefered chain doesn't have a hotel. I've got a list of FF number on my laptop and my PDA, so don't carry many of the cards.

You don't say where you are from. If you intend to return there quite often, then that might have some impact on the answers. Typically you will get more miles on the odd long haul trip and on a number of short trips within Europe. This is especially the case if you use many of the excellent value low cost airlines that operate out of the UK. As a general rule these don't have FF programmes.

I concur with the advice already given. For *alliance, consider BMI. Look at the relevant forum for details and particularly if you're looking for a UK credit card consider the BMI card issued by MBNA which has a generous welcome bonus.

Hi all,
Sorry for the slow response. I didn't realise I had to manually subscribe to the thread to receive notifications. I'm used to getting auto subscribed to any thread I start.

Anyways...

I'm from Australia, I plan on living/working in London for next 1-3 years (depends how much fun I'm having.). I can't see myself returning more than once a year, and may not even do that. Lots of variables in that.

On joining every FF program, I'm assuming you mean ones outside the alliances. Or is there a plus to being on more than one star alliance FF program? I can see that there is nothing to lose from signing up to any non-linked FF program if flying on that particular carrier is the best value.

Do you need one membership per person or can I count miles my wife flys on my membership?

Is it normal to be able to redeem star alliance miles on any star alliance carrier or is that a special bonus to being a part of BMI?

Cheers,
Pete

ProggerPete, welcome to FlyerTalk! Our site has many forums and your question will elicit even better responses on our MilesBuzz forum. Let me move it seamlessly there for more discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz

Righto, sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

Try not to join multiple programs int he same alliance unless you fly enough to justify it - scattered miles are not very useful..

Cheers gpan, I don't expect to fly an enormous amount, but once a month is possible.

Also wondering if someone can give me the simple version on why bmi is better than say United Airways or luftwotever the german one is.

It depends entirely on what you want to get out of the FFP, and what your flying pattern will be. There are three main benefits available:

1) award tickets (eg free tickets)
2) status with the airline / alliance (ie lounge access, fewer queues)
3) upgrades

bmi is a good FFP for (1) above as it allows miles + cash redemptions, which are generally considered good value. It's also good for (2) above being relatively easy to achieve and maintain gold status with star alliance (especially if you're flying in premium cabins - will your (presumably) AUS - UK trip be in economy class?). It's fairly hopeless for (3), though, so if you're wanting to upgrade between UK and AUS, you may be better with UA (although you'd need to fly the wrong way round) or LH (with an extra connection).

Search this site (or, indeed, google) for BlondeBomber's Star Alliance Comparison Chart, which does pretty much what it says it does.

Im am in the same position, and I have heard if you are in the UK, bmi is one of the best programmes for Star Alliance.

Do I need a Social Security number for the credit card deals though???

No need for a Social Security number, but be aware that if you're newly arrived in the UK you may have problems with the credit check.

Yes.

Unfortunately, you cannot have miles added to your FFP account from your wife's flights. As far as I know, the only exception is certain airlines that allow household account. I am not familiar with it though.

Wingnut: Thanks for the input.

I'm flying Economy to the UK from AUS.

That comparison chart makes no sense to someone as illiterate in frequent flyer terms as I am.

I have no idea what "Paid 1st COS Bonus" is or whether 50% of it is better than 200%.

I'm not really sure what I want most out the rewards program. I just want to get as much as I can I guess.

I reckon lounge access would be pretty cool, but then so would free flights and upgrades. Being able to fly business or first class on a long flight like UK to AUS would be pretty sweet.

A big thing for me is that apart from the occassional (maybe once a year) flight to aus I'm planning on doing most of my flying as trips from the UK to Europe or wherever else I can get to on nice cheap fares.

I'm a CC junkie. We live off our CC's and pay them off each month, so a program that rewards us for this would be great.

Hmm I realise all my questions are pretty vague. I'll give some solid questions.

Say all I was after was lounge access, which programme would give me gold status the easiest?

Can I get to Gold Status via bonuses from things like CC sign ups or do I have to actually fly the miles?

BraniffLuvr: If you learn anything cool post here or send me a message and I can do the same for you.

COS = Class Of Service = bonus miles for flying in First (or, indeed, business). Thus 200% is better than 50%. If you look under the help menu on the top right, there's a glossary which may help you begin to find your way around!

The problem here is that you don't earn status on an award ticket, but you'll need to earn the miles, so your best way of getting into the premium cabins AND earn status is through upgrade awards.
What kind of destinations are you interested in and are you prepared to transfer? bmi have a very limited network of European destinations - beyond that, with *A (Star Alliance) you're limited to partner destinations (of which there are quite a few - Lufthansa, SAS, Austrian, LOT and Swiss). The best route network for direct European flights from London is BA which would mean One World and partner you up with Qantas. But we're a little late for that, now you've bought your Singapore flights.
I am prepared to stand corrected on this, but I believe it's Air Canada with *G (Star Gold) at 35,000 miles within a calendar year from a standing start. bmi isn't much higher at 38K, BUT you need to earn silver first at 16K, whereupon you get reset so actually requiring 54K from a standing start. However you need to check the other vagaries of the two FFPs such as earning rates (you may not get 100% miles on discount economy fares, for example).
With very limited exceptions, none of which apply here, you actually need to flight to get status miles (which earn you your Gold). The credit cards (and hotels, and car hires, and all the rest of it) only give you award miles (which you can spend on flights).